Just Before Dawn
by ItsLukasBondevik
Summary: For one dark, cold, frightening moment, Rapunzel was completely alone.


Rapunzel watched the only mother she ever knew tumble out of the window, saw her face, for one split second as she fell, and the image was burned into her mind like a brand. The wrinkles, slowly disintegrating, her black hair turned steel gray, her arms growing thinner and fainter beneath the black cloak and then she was gone. Her arms reflexively reached out for her, though she knew that nothing she could do would save that woman from what was coming for her.

But her heart broke in half, horrified at the fate that had befallen the woman she had loved and counted on for so many years. She was just gone, in the blink of an eye, out the window. She tore her face away from the one she couldn't save, turning back to the one that maybe, just maybe, she could help. She lifted him up from the ground, cradling his face in her hands, and she cried, "No, no, no, no! Eugene!" He coughed lightly, and she pushed his hair back away from his face, begging him, "Look at me! Stay with me Eugene!"

She took his hand in hers, pressing it up against her short hair, her eyes squeezed shut. "Flower gleam and glow," she whimpered, "let your power shine." As she sang, he called her name weakly, twice, but she continued, hoping, wishing, dreaming that this would work, that everything would be okay. "Make the clocks reverse, bring back what once was mine."

"Rapunzel!" His voice sounded like it was fading away, and she opened her eyes, holding back her tears, keeping her mind off the blood on his shirt. Never would she have imagined Eugene in this situation; he was so strong, so brave, so constant. He was someone that could fight his way out of any situation, that could find a way to be on top no matter what. But now he was broken and it was all her fault.

"What?" she whispered, her voice cracking, her heart holding together by a thread. His eyes were closed, his breathing shallow, but she never let go of his hand, her fingers tight against his skin.

He whispered, "You were my new dream." At that very moment, her heart shattered. All semblance of what her life had been, of what her life could be, fall into a dismal array of nothingness and pain that she could hardly contain within herself.

She let out a weak laugh, and said, her voice almost too soft to hear, "And you were mine." He smiled, that smile that she loved more than anything else, and she heard the last breath of life leave him, as he grew limp in her arms, his head falling to the side. She could hardly breathe, she couldn't think, her eyes watched his handsome face grow paler and paler by the minute, tears forming in her green eyes that she just couldn't control. She released his hand and cupped his face, her thumb running along his cheek.

What else could she do? Where else could she go? Everything she ever knew in life was dead and gone. She had Pascal, and he would keep her company, but would that be enough? The one she thought was her mother wasn't truly her mother, the man she loved was now lying still in her arms. She could go to her parents, her real parents, but she would never be the same. Her life would never be the same now that Eugene was dead. She had learned to love, to truly be romantically in love with someone, to care about them more than herself, and she would never be able to live a normal life after that.

She would have stayed locked away in a tower forever if it meant that Eugene was out there alive somewhere. He would have tried to look for her, she was sure, but if he would ever find her, she did not know. Gothel was bent on keeping her away from the world forever. But as long as he was alive, she would have endured missing him, thinking of him every day, loving him with every last beat of her heart, with every breath she took.

But now... now he was gone.

Feeling more hopeless than she had ever felt in her entire life, she began to sing. "Heal what has been hurt, change the fates' design, save what has been lost," she trailed her hand down his neck, to his chest, wondering what would have happened, what their future would have been together. "Bring back what once was mine." Her voice was thick with emotion, too thick to sing any longer, and she managed to say, hardly able to speak, "Bring back what once was mine..." The dam broke on her eyes, and the tears found their way down her face. She squeezed her eyes shut, and knew that as long as she lived, she would never, ever love another like she loved Flynn Rider, Eugene Fitzherbert, the wanted thief that turned out to be a man with a heart of gold.

Rapunzel pressed her forehead against his and knew that nothing would ever be happy again.

AN: I'm sure it's been done before, but I couldn't get it out of my head to write. So here it is!


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